We All Fall Down
by Josephine Rayne
Summary: What secret is Jamie's family hiding from him? Completed!
1. Secrets

A/N: Please review "WTEC:3" and "Baby Andrew"! This is a happy story I promise!  
  
"We All Fall Down"  
  
Chapter One: Secrets  
  
  
Jamie awoke that night to hear yelling. He got out of bed and crept to the stairs., his rocket pajamas shinning in the light. It's mommy and daddy, he thought, and his older 20 year old sister, Megan. What are they fighting about? Maybe he should wake up his sleeping six year old brother, Peter? But, Jamie's four year old mind took over and he was now thinking about teddy bears and crayons. He went to bed that night, not knowing that the argument was about him…  
  
Twelve years later, his sister, Megan was thirty two and living on her own, with a husband, Paul of four years and a daughter Hannah who was three. They owned a successful French restaurant and Jamie got along with her even though she was 16 years older, they had a similar personality. His eighteen year old brother Peter on the other hand, he never got a long with. "Peter the Perfect" the ideal son, studying law in collage at Harvard.   
  
"Meggie, what are you doing here?" Jamie asked his sister as he came down from the table.   
  
"Just visiting." she replied, smiling but looking very nervous. " Where are mom and dad?"  
  
"In the family room I think." he asked grapping a donut from the pantry. His parents, Doug and Emmanuelle Waite were relatively young at 50 and 52 and though at times he felt that they favored Peter over him, he knew that they loved him and he got along with them most of the time. He was the baby of the family, his mother always calling him that, he had help them to stay young they said.   
  
Just as he had in the past, as Jamie walk past the living room door, he could hear them talking angrily, but trying to hid it.  
  
"When are we going to tell him?" Megan asked her parents.  
  
"It's not time yet, give him- us more time." Doug replied.   
  
"More time, it's been 16 years, I think he is old enough to understand and except what happened. We need to tell soon, before there is anymore confusion. Think of Hannah, think of him. Paul and I-"  
  
"He has been ours for his whole life. We are the only parents he as ever known." Emmanuelle stated. Jamie listened further, who were they talking about- what where they talking about. The room was silent for a long time, until a shiver swept through him as he heard his name being called. "Jamie, baby, come in here." his mother said, it sounded like she had tears in her eyes.   
  
"I have something important to tell you." Megan spoke up first as he nervously made a seat on the couch.   
  
"Are you pregnant again?" Jamie said hoping that was all it was, though he knew it wasn't.  
  
"No. No, not that. Um, this is hard to say." she said trilling her red hair around her finger like she always did when she was nervous. "When I was 16 years old I got pregnant, a stupid thing to do I know, but at that point in my life, I didn't care, I was wild. I knew I could not be a good mother to my baby , I couldn't even take care of myself. But, I couldn't give up my baby for a adoption or have an abortion. So, I did the only thing I could." she paused at that point and looked at her parents. "I gave my baby boy to my parents to raise." Jamie didn't know why it didn't sink in he didn't know why he just didn't realize. "My son, and Paul's son is you."   
  
A thought went across his mind, no one in his family had his brown almost black hair. They were all red heads. Thought they had looked alike, the only person he knew that had the same kind of hair as him was Paul.   
  
Paul had been in his life for as long as he could remember, he could not remember a time when he and his sister were not together. They liked each other as well, Paul was a cool guy.   
  
Jamie thought again and realized Hannah had the same hair as well.  
  
Megan his mother? Paul his father? Hannah is sister?! This was more then he could take. "This can't be true. Mom? Dad?"  
  
"It's all true, I'm sorry Jamie. We should have told you sooner." Doug replied reaching to hug his son. But, Jamie would have none of it. He was shocked, scared. He did the only thing he could and ran to his room, only to see Hannah was sleeping his bed. He went up to her and parted the hair out of her sleeping face. "So, I'm your brother." she sighed to himself. "We have some screwed up parents don't we?"  
* * *  
More to come! 


	2. Dependence and Reminiscences

A/N: I know it's been awhile but finally here's chapter two. *~* mean a memory.  
  
We All Fall Down  
  
Chapter 2: Dependence and Reminiscences   
  
The rain continued to pour down as Jamie sat miserable in his room, looking out the window. The funny thing was that he wasn't even that mad anymore he just felt lost and alone. Everyone in his family had kept this secret from him, Peter hadn't even had the guts to tell Jamie that his sister was actually his mother. Jamie thought about what he should do and couldn't find any answers. Making up with the rest of his family and "living happily ever after" didn't seem to appealing to Jamie at this particular moment. Would Paul and Megan want him to live with them? How would they explain all this to Hannah? He felt dizzy just thinking about it.   
  
"Jamie?" Paul called to him from behind the locked, closed door. Jamie sighed, he just wanted everyone to leave him alone so he could think. So, Jamie grabbed his coat, kissed his "new" sister goodbye, and raced as fast as he could out of the house.   
  
Now, that he was alone, walking in the rain, he figured he'd go to Caitie's and just forget about the melodrama that his life a seemed to become.   
  
* ~*  
Five year old Jamie sat smugly in his mother's lap; her curly, long red hair tickling his neck.   
  
"Is that me when I was born, Mama?" Seven year old Peter asked Emmanuelle Waite as he pointed to another picture in the photo album. In the picture a small red headed baby lay wrapped in Emmanuelle's arms.   
  
"Yes, that's you Peter, August 24, 1984." she smiled thinking about her son's birth . Little James tugged at her sleeve. "Where's mine?"  
  
"Time for lunch. No more pictures today." she said suddenly.  
  
~*~  
There were never any pictures of Jamie's birth. Jamie now knew why. Megan had gotten pregnant and run away from home. Had him and then returned home to dump him on her parents. The baby she didn't want.   
Emmanuelle had always told stories of being pregnant and given birth to Peter and Megan. "This one was a kicker" and "this one made me eat that." But, never, ever where there stories of Jamie.   
  
Jamie continued to walk in silence as he thought about the lie his childhood had been. Months earlier he had asked his mother for his birth certificate so he could get his license and she could not produce it. Other thoughts flew through his head . The fact that though Hannah had called Peter, and had been reminded to often , Uncle Peter, she had never had or been told to call Jamie the same. The family picture loomed in his mind, 4 red heads and a visibly misplaced dark haired boy. Also, most times except on the actual day he's birthday was never mentioned., and on those days he always got extra special attention from Paul and Megan.   
  
Things were all starting to be put into place, but still Jamie did not know what to do. Still, finally he stood at Caitie's door, his friend staring strangely at him.   
  
"What's wrong?" she asked as he cried standing in the rain. Something he did not often do. When Jamie said nothing she pulled him in a hug and asked him in.  
* * *  
A/N: Longer chapter and sooner next time! 


	3. Just One Big Happy Family

A/N: Thanks to Val and Arcadia who beta read chapter two. The end is here. Short story ( and short chapter) I know, but I think this story has gone as far as it can. So without further ado here is the end to:  
  
We All Fall Down  
  
Chapter Three: Just One Big Happy Family.  
  
"That went well." Paul Kendall said in a sarcastic tone that reminded Megan of Jamie.  
  
"Not funny." Meggie replied turning serious. "Maybe we shouldn't have told him. Things were just fine the way they were." Paul grabbed her hand.   
  
"No, it was not fine. I want my son to know me, I want him to know his sister, his real family. I want Jamie to see me as his father." he said letting go and looking at her eyes. He knew she wanted that too.   
  
Megan nodded. It had been hard for them, but still she felt that telling Jamie, upsetting his life like this was a bit selfish on their part. They had made the choice to step away from his life as parents a long time ago, they had chosen to let their baby son be raised by another. Maybe this was one mistake she could not fix.   
  
"But what's our plan? He knows, so what. Are we going to move him? Regain custody? He's 16 years old, maybe it's too late to make things right." she told her husband.   
  
"Right now, lets just hope he comes home."  
  
*~*  
"Wow." Caitie said bluntly as she and Jamie sat on her living room sofa.   
  
"That's all you can say?" replied Jamie as he sat wrapped up in a blanket and drinking hot coffee.  
  
Caitie laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "Yeah that's pretty much it." she smiled at him. "Really though, I'm sorry. It must have been a shock."  
  
Jamie nodded. He didn't have any idea of who he was. Was he James Adam Waite or James Adam Kendall? To have his identity taken away from him like this was horrible. But did it really matter? To himself he was the son of Emmanuelle and Douglas Waite did it matter that he really wasn't? He couldn't be sure. Thousands of kids were adopted , who didn't even know their birth parents, Jamie could even count himself lucky that he did. If he wanted to have some sort of a father- son relationship with Paul he could, same with Megan. But, how hard would it be to go from older sister, to mother?   
  
"So what are you doing to do?" Caitie asked him. It was a question that had plagued Jamie's mind. A question he wasn't sure how to solve.   
  
"I guess I have to go home and face them." Jamie said suddenly sure this was the right thing to do.   
  
*~*  
"Jamie!" Emmanuelle called as he saw her young son- yes son, open the front door. "We were worried about you." She had dreaded this day for as long as when Jamie was left to her by her daughter. It was worse then Peter going to college or having your child's wedding, she was loosing more then having your children finally growing up and leaving you, which in a sense was really a good thing , except that everything including your status in your child's life was changing. She was returning her son, her baby, back to this mother. Back to someone that was not her.   
  
He embraced her and gave her a hug. "I love you, mom." he had told her. This woman who had given so much to him.   
  
"Hi." Megan and Paul said as they held Hannah in their arms. Hannah to young to understand the milestone and change that was about to occur in her family. Everyone had their doubts on what would happen now that Jamie knew the truth.  
  
"I'm not saying, I'm just going to move in with you and call you mom and dad, and we'll be one big happy family." Jamie started looking at his new parents. " I have a home and a great mom and a dad. All I am saying is that I want to get there with you two, I want to have that relationship someday. So let's start right here and now, and talk."  
*~*  
A/N: That's it I hope you guys all like this story, And hey it's happy just as I promised. 


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